A surge in oil prices and a report of record retail sales in December from Statistics Canada couldn’t stop a slide in the S&P/TSX composite index today as traders resorted to profit-taking in commodity and financial stocks.

The S&P/TSX composite index has lost 49.82 points to 11,815.94. The TSX Venture Exchange has reversed a morning climb, losing 1.27 points to 2,537.91.

The Canadian dollar traded at US87.30 cents, up 0.12 of a cent. The loonie reversed course after Statistics Canada reported that retail sales hit a record $31.25 billion in December, an increase of 0.3 per cent.

There was also a sell-off in the U.S., where the Conference Board reported that its Index of Leading Economic Indicators, an index designed to predict economic activity over the short term, rose sharply in January. New York’s Dow Jones industrials lost 25.37 points to 11,089.95. The Nasdaq dropped 11.78 points at 2,270.58 and the S&P 500 lost 1.04 points to 286.2.